page_title: Gutta-percha
section_title: Historic
hierarchical_section_title: Gutta-percha / Uses / Historic
caption_attribution_description: Drawing; Drawings
context_page_description: Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus Palaquium in the family Sapotaceae. The name also refers to the rigid, naturally biologically inert, resilient, electrically nonconductive, thermoplastic latex produced from the sap of the tree, particularly from Palaquium gutta; it is a polymer of isoprene which forms a rubber-like elastomer.
  The word gutta-percha comes from the plant's name in Malay: getah translates as 'latex'. Percha or perca is an older name for Sumatra.
context_section_description: Scientifically classified in 1843, it was found to be a useful natural thermoplastic. In 1851, 30,000 long cwt (1,500,000 kg) of gutta-percha was imported into Britain.
  During the second half of the 19th century, gutta-percha was used for many domestic and industrial purposes, and it became a household word. In particular, it was needed as insulation for underwater telegraph cables, which, according to author John Tully, led to unsustainable harvesting and collapse of supply.
  
  According to Harvey Wickes Felter and John Uri Lloyd's Endodontology: 
  Even long before Gutta-percha was introduced into the Western world, it was used in a less processed form by the natives of the Malaysian archipelago for making knife handles, walking sticks and other purposes. The first European to discover this material was John Tradescant, who collected it in the far east in 1656. He named this material "Mazer wood". Dr. William Montgomerie, a medical officer in Indian service, introduced gutta-percha into practical use in the West. He was the first to appreciate the potential of this material in medicine, and he was awarded the gold medal by the Royal Society of Arts, London in 1843.
caption: Cable manufacturing with gutta-percha at the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company in Greenwich, London, c. 1865
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